Row delays endorsement of two commissioners

The endorsement of Cecilia Malmström and Algirdas Šemeta as members of the next European Commission hit a late hitch this evening because of a row between liberal and centre-right MEPs.

German MEP Manfred Weber, spokesman for the European People’s Party group in Parliament’s civil liberties committee, raised concerns about Malmström’s performance in her hearing, delaying work on the evaluation letter that the committee must submit to Jerzy Buzek, Parliament’s president. Malmström, who is a member of the Swedish liberal party, has been assigned the dossier of commissioner for home affairs.

Parliament’s liberal group responded by preventing the budgetary control committee from adopting its evaluation letter on Šemeta, commissioner-designate for taxation, customs union, audit and anti-fraud.

MEPs did, however, this evening finalise their letters of evaluation of Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner-designate for the digital agenda, and Olli Rehn, the European commissioner-designate for economic and monetary affairs, taking the tally of letters to Buzek to 23.

All the letters sent to Buzek, including those for Kroes and Rehn, recommend that the Parliament should approve the commissioner-designates. In Kroes’ case, approval was secured only after a second round of questioning from MEPs, which took place yesterday. Both Kroes and Rehn were judged to have been disappointing in their hearings.

MEPs have provisionally planned a hearing for Kristalina Georgieva, Bulgaria’s new commissioner-designate, on 3 February. Boyko Borisov, Bulgaria’s prime minister, nominated Georgieva on Tuesday (19 January) as a replacement for Rumiana Jeleva, who withdrew her candidacy on Monday.

The final hearings for other members of the new college were completed on Tuesday.

The Parliament’s political group leaders will meet at 10am tomorrow morning to make an initial evaluation of the hearings.

Buzek said today that Parliament’s vote on whether to approve the new Commission would take place on 9 February. Parliament has to give its approval before commissioners can be sworn into office on 10 February.